The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared for marketing a test that simultaneously detects four common respiratory viruses, including the flu, in a patient’s respiratory secretions. The ProFlu+ test provides results in as few as three hours. Other diagnostic tests for respiratory viruses are fast but not as accurate or are accurate but not as rapid. The real-time test employs a multiplex platform that allows several tests to be processed using the same sample to detect influenza A virus, influenza B virus, and respiratory syncytial virus A and B (RSV).
